The Small but Mighty MM Romance Group is hosting their annual 12 Tropes of Christmas Event. #12tropes23 I'm taking part on two days, Second Chance (on the 11th) and Poly Romance (on the 15th).
https://www.facebook.com/groups/605057917169258
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Mug Shot Monday: Peet's Coffee Christmas Mugs Week One
For the next few weeks I’m going to be highlighting my Peet’s Christmas mugs. I have a lot of them. These have a snowflake design on a gold (?) background, with interiors that are either red or blue. The mug on the right is the only blue Christmas mug I have and I am conflicted about it. I have a complicated relationship with the color blue.
See, my mother loved blue. So, in my mind it's always been her color. Besides which, she'd gotten it in her head that blue looked better if your hair was fair. If you had dark hair, on the other hand, as I did, she felt red was a better color. My sister, who is a year younger than I am, had lighter hair than I did, so she got dressed in blue all the time while I wore a lot of red. I grew to like red quite a lot, but there was a time when I felt like my sister was her favorite because she dressed her in "her" color.
For most of my adult life I stayed away from blue. But lately I've been adding a lot more of it into my life. I'm still not quite sure what I think of this mug. I'll only drink tea in it, however. The red mug gets coffee, cocoa, occasionally some Lapsang Souchong. The blue mug only gets tea. Maybe some spiced cider.
Fun note. I always thought my sister liked blue. Turns out she doesn't. She prefers red. And of course, I find that low key annoying. I'm telling you, sibling rivalry, man; it really never goes away. lol!
Friday, December 8, 2023
Saturday Snippet: Finders Keepers
First of all, I want to send out a great big THANK YOU! to ScaryMaryTheHamsterLady for posting this new review for Finders Keepers! It's always great when a not-so-new book gets some love. So here's a snippet that I don't think I've shared before--although it's a cookie baking scene, so it's not entirely impossible. I love Aldo so much. He's soooo grumpy--with good reason--and that was just such fun to write!
Aldo was baking cookies. Spicy black-pepper-cinnamon cookies—Davis’s favorite. He rolled the dough thin, then cut them out using the maple-leaf cookie cutter Sally and Davis had brought him back from Vancouver. Then he decorated them with sanding sugar in a variety of colors, some in plain red or green in a nod to the season, some swirled with autumn shades of burgundy and gold, others frosted just at the tips in blue and white, as though they’d been touched by an ice fairy. Maple leaves weren’t particularly Christmasy, he supposed, but he didn’t care. He liked the way the cookies looked, liked the way the edges browned first, like real leaves would. Besides, he doubted anyone else here would even notice what shape cookies he made…not unless he used the pornographic cookie cutters he’d received one year as a gag gift. Too bad he wasn’t in the mood to play around like that. Not when he was the only one in the house who wasn’t getting any.
That was a big part of the reason he was baking, come to think of it—because he had nothing better to do. Or no one better to do. No one at all to do, for that matter—but let’s not go there. And because baking cookies was part of what he’d always done at this time of year.
Of course, in years past he’d baked mostly because Davis, who had a hellacious sweet tooth, couldn’t get enough of them. But Sally had always liked his cookies as well, and anything that made her happy, anything that made her feel like the world hadn’t ended with Davis’s death was a good thing. They both needed to feel like that. Besides, the weather had turned cold and it had been snowing for the better part of the afternoon, so going for another hike was out unless he wanted to end up with hypothermia. He could either bake or spend all his time curled up in front of the fire thinking gloomy thoughts. He’d done more than enough of that in the past few days.
Finders Keepers
Sometimes finding what you want is the easy part...
Caleb is a bionic soldier with little-to-no memory of his past. Aldo's an undercover cop who's searching for the man who got away. Then there's Sally, an ER physician who used to be married to Aldo's late partner, Davis. Sally's just looking for a reason to keep on getting up every day.
This holiday season, chance will bring them together and give them an opportunity to help one another find what they each want most. But every gift comes with a price. And keeping what they've found once they've found it? Yeah, that's gonna be the hard part.
https://books2read.com/Finders
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
What I'm Reading post for December 6, 2023
In Seven Year Slip, the heroine (Clementine) inherits an apartment that occasionally sends people back and forth in time, but only by seven years. She meets someone in the apartment who's living seven years in the past. And then meets him again in the present time. He has memories of all the times they'd interacted in the past, but she doesn't yet, because some of them are still in her future.
The story is much less confusing than I'm making it sound. It's a really good book--even if the heroine has regrettable tastes in wine. It also revolves around food, cooking, and publishing. So it's almost perfect.
It reminds me of Casey McQuiston's One Last Stop, which I also loved. In that one, the magical apparatus that sends people back and forth in time is a subway car.
And now I'm not going to be satisfied until I start writing my own time-travel book, damn it.
Monday, December 4, 2023
New Release! Christmas Angel!
I'm so excited for this new release! I think it's the cutest Christmas story I've ever written--and that's saying something, because I love ALL my Christmas stories! It came out unexpectedly sweet--which I did not see coming. It's funny, romantic, VERY Christmasy, and makes me feel hopelessly nostalgic.
Christmas Angel
An Angels in the Afterlife Christmas Story
Being fully transparent is good for a relationship, right? Well, maybe not when it’s literal.
Christmas Angel is a second-chance, holiday romance with a celestial twist. Probationary angel Jake Hennessy's been sent back to earth to mend fences with his ex. Or has he? Certainly Tony doesn’t seem to think that's the case.
Tony DiCecco might have ninety-nine problems—and then some—between dealing with his meddlesome family AND running the family business (a Christmas tree farm in rural Texas) but he's pretty sure that playing catch-up with his ex-husband isn’t supposed to be one of them.
And what would even be the point? It’s hard to imagine what kind of future the two of them could have when one of them is alive and the other...isn't.
https://books2read.com/Christmas-Angel
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Mug Shot Monday: Rae Dunn Naughty/Nice Mug
If they were two separate mugs, rather than two sides of the same mug, Jake would get the naughty mug, and Tony the Nice one.
And here's a little excerpt of my boys as they take a little trip down memory lane...
“Here we are,” Tony says, startling me out of my reverie, as he pulls into a field of trees.
I take a quick look around and feel myself frowning. It seems anti-climactic. But really, what was I expecting? It’s a tree farm. That’s what they’ve got here. Lots and lots of trees.
Once we come to a stop, Tony sets the brake and hops out of the vehicle. I do the same. The sky above is overcast, the temperature is dropping pretty quickly—nothing strange about that. That’s just how the weather works here.
All the same, I huddle deeper into my jacket, shivering slightly. Reminding myself that there’s no cause for alarm. Even a forty degree change in temperature, between morning to night, is not unusual for this time of year.
I still don’t know what we’re doing here, however. So I glance at Tony, only to find that he’s watching me expectantly. “What?” I ask cautiously, aware that I’m missing something.
He nods towards the trees. “I guess the place looks a little different than you remember it, huh?”
Yeah, because I don’t remember it, I think. Still, I look around again, trying to humor him, trying to pick out something, anything that might spark a memory. And then… “Wait….these trees. These aren’t… I mean, this isn’t…is it?”
There’s nothing coherent in the clumsy words that fall from my lips, but Tony nods as though they made perfect sense. And the sad, reluctant smile he gives me leaves me with no doubt. He knows what I was trying to ask him. And the answer is yes.
“Wow.” I lose my breath a little bit as I contemplate the trees again, trying to see them as they once were, those very first seedlings the two of us planted together. “They got big, huh?”
“Yeah. They did.”
“Aw,” I say in a desperate attempt to downplay my emotions. “Our first babies. All grown up.”
“That tends to be how it works,” Tony replies dryly. He’s always been much better than I at hiding his emotions. Still, he brought me here, didn’t he? I mean, he brought me here—and made sure I knew it. That’s got to mean something.
I glance around again. “So, which one…? I mean, do you know…?”
“No.” Tony sighs. “I have no idea.” And, for just a moment, he looks like maybe he regrets that, too.
“So, what’re we doing with ’em today?”
Tony shrugs and looks away. “Oh, you know. Just a little last-minute shape up to make them look nice.”
Last-minute? Oh, shit. I draw in another quick breath and ask, “You mean, before they’re cut down.”
“Yeah.”
“Wow.” It’s a tree farm, I remind myself. A. Tree. Farm. That’s what they do here. That’s why we planted them in the first place. “That’s some Circle of Life shit right there, innit?”
“Yep.”
Reaching into the vehicle, I grab gloves and shears. “Okay. Show me what you need me to do.”
And maybe it’s not the reconciliation I was hoping for, but as a way of bonding and finding closure with one another, it doesn’t suck.
You’ve heard this story, or one just like it, so many times before. It’s the one about the cranky workaholic who dies, is turned into an angel, and gets sent back to earth to save some other poor schmuck from suffering the same unhappy fate.
Typically, it’s billed as a rom-com, or a dramedy or a supernatural, holiday romantasy; perfect for those cozy, “stay at home with the family and try to pretend that compromise is fun” nights.
Which is ludicrous. Even Dickens, the man who invented cheesy Christmas stories, knew better. His Marley was clearly miserable, as who wouldn’t be in his situation? Which, as it happens, is also my situation. Lucky me.
Hi. My name is Jacob. I’m a Christmas Angel. And this is my story.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
Saturday Snippet: Light Up the Night
And it reminded me of the following scene from Light Up the Night. In this scene Heather is arguing with her sire, Marc, about who she is and isn't allowed to date.
Oh, and in case you aren't familiar with the series, they're all vampires. For reference, Heather was a teenage runaway when she was turned (against her will) just a year or two earlier. Marc is NOT the guy who turned her, but IS her "guardian" now (long story) and super-protective. He was born in 1969--which makes him really young by vampire standards, not so much by Heather's Gen Z standards. Drew and Elise, OTOH, are both several hundred years old.
Light Up the Night
“I thought you liked Drew. Aren’t you supposed to be friends, or something?”
“I do like him. And of course, we’re friends. Did you really think I’d have trusted just anyone to look after you? I don’t like being the bad guy. I don’t like making the people I care about unhappy. But he’s just too damn old for you. There’s no getting around that.”
“And how much older than you is Elise?”
“That’s different.”
“No, it really isn’t. It’s a double standard—and that’s not different at all.” She shook her head. “You know it’s funny. People keep talking about how we’re a new type of vampire clan. They say we’re re-writing the rules and making history, and blah, blah, blah. And I’m not seeing it. But I do like the way it sounds. And I think it’s something we could maybe lean into a little harder. And you know where a good place to start would be? If you let me make my own decisions about who I get involved with. It’s like the song says: you don’t own me.”
Marc frowned. “Wait. Did you just quote Lesley Gore at me?”
“No?” Heather replied. “I don’t even know who that is.”
“She was a singer. She’s dead now, but she was very popular during the sixties. That song was one of her biggest hits.”
“Oh. Well, then maybe I did. But all I know is the song. And only that one part. I remember it from a movie I saw when I was a kid. I think the song was old then.” She studied him for a moment then asked, “So, you must be really old, huh?”
“Oh, thank you very much. Not that old, no.”
“If you say so.”
Marc shot her an amused look. “You know, someday, when you’re my age—which, by the way, is going to come along a whole lot sooner than you apparently think—I’m going to remind you of this conversation and ask you how old you feel then.” He shook his head and added, mockingly, “And you say you’re not a kid.”
“Yeah, because I’m not,” Heather replied. “Just because I’m going to look like a kid forever doesn’t mean you get to treat me like one. We’re not living in the nineteen-hundreds anymore.”
“Don’t you mean the eighteen-hundreds? Although I wouldn’t know anything about that, since I wasn’t alive back then. You know who you could ask, though—right? That’d be Drew. Because he lived through that entire century, not to mention the previous two. Or maybe even the previous three. I don’t know for sure.”
“Nice try. But no. I said the nineteen-hundreds and that’s what I meant. Didn’t you ever see West Side Story? Or Titanic? Endless Love? The Notebook?”
“Wait—are you talking about movies? I thought we were discussing real life?”
“We are. But all those movies I mentioned were set in the nineteen-hundreds. In fact, I think they were filmed then, too. So, they’re probably reasonably accurate depictions of the idiotic notions you all had back then.”
A Children of Night/Ugly Christmas Sweater Story
Her love will light up his night. If they both can survive that long.
Heather is having the worst Christmas ever! Or, at least, the worst Christmas since she was forced to become a vampire. Her sire's distracted, her nest-mates have forgotten her existence, and a bunch of weirdos have taken over her lair. The only bright spot in her life right now is Drew--who didn't even used to like her! She knows he's coming around, but that's not good enough. She wants more. She wants everything. She wants him. And she's not giving up.
Drew Geiger gave up on love a long time ago. Such tender emotions have no place in a vampire's heart. But, somehow, the girl he once described as a "feral kitten" has got her claws in him, and she's not letting go. That would be fine, if only someone didn't want her dead--and if her sire didn't still inconveniently remember that it was Drew who'd once suggested that maybe she'd be better off that way.
***This story features characters from the Children of Night series. It takes place between books six and seven in the series and follows Going Back to Find You.***
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)